Purity among the παρθένοι of Revelation 14:1–5 and the Βάκχοι of Western Asia Minor

Abstract

Abstract:In this article I argue that in Revelation 14 the followers of the Lamb are presented in ways that overlap with the claims and praxis of Dionysiac groups in Western Asia Minor, thereby necessitating the formation of new lines of separation between the assemblies to which the Apocalypse is addressed and the religious networks surrounding them. Focusing on the process of group formation, I seek to recover the traces of Revelation's groups as they would have been formed within the diverse and varied religious landscapes of Western Asia Minor. A text consumed with the condemnation of its competitors, from nearby synagogues to Caesar in Rome, Revelation here constructs Bacchic and Orphic cults as another set of anti-groups by presenting the pure initiates of the Lamb who have been granted blessing after death in opposition to the unrighteous whose inheritance is the unmixed wine of God's wrath.